After over a year of flip-flopping and reversing its position on Syria and its president, Bashar al-Assad, the U.S has finally admitted the real reason its military continues to violate Syria’s sovereignty.

After months of incoherence, the Trump administration has taken a step toward a clear policy on Syria and its civil war. In a speech last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson bluntly recognized a truth that both President Trump and President Barack Obama attempted to dodge: that ‘it is crucial to our national defense to maintain a military and diplomatic presence in Syria, to help bring an end to that conflict, and assist the Syrian people . . . to achieve a new political future.’ To do that, the United States will continue to deploy several thousand personnel in the country and help allied Syrian forces maintain control over enclaves in the southwest, near Israel and Jordan, and the northeast, on the border with Iraq and Turkey.” [emphasis added]

The great lie told by the Washington Post editorial board, however, is its attempt to paint Washington’s regime change operation in Syria as crucial to America’s national defense and a “truth that both President Trump and President Barack Obama attempted to dodge.” In doing so, the Post is suggesting that regime change in Syria is the only realistic path for the U.S. to pursue, even when it has become increasingly clear that the longer the U.S. prolongs the war in Syria, the greater the suffering of ordinary Syrians will be.

Considering that the U.S. military’s recent strategy in Syria allegedly involves a 30,000-strong Kurdish and Arab border force that in less than a week prompted a Turkish invasion, it should be clear that the U.S. has no intention of putting Syria on the long-awaited road to peace.

However, according to the Washington Post, the U.S.’ new proposal is justified. Critics predictably charge that Mr. Trump is launching another ‘endless war’ in Syria,” the WaPo Editorial Board writes.

In fact, the administration has simply recognized reality: The United States cannot prevent a resurgence of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, prevent Iran from building bases across Syria, or end a civil war that has sent millions of refugees toward Europe without maintaining control over forces inside the country, just as Russia and Iran do.”

The Washington Post’s attempt to absolve American foreign policy of its role in the refugee crisis ignores the fact that after the Syrian government was able to retake Syria’s major cities, hundreds of thousands of refugees began returning to their homes.

The references to Iran also raise some issues. If Syria opts to allow Iran to build bases inside its country, international law dictates that no other country should be allowed to interfere with this proposal. The U.S. is suspected of having close to 1,000 bases worldwide, and many of them have encircled Iran. If the U.S. can have bases, so can any other country.

Further, it is not clear under which legal principle the Washington Post is suggesting the U.S. has the right to invade someone else’s country just to oppose Iran.

If the U.S. wants to counter Iran and al-Qaeda and bring peace to Syria, logic dictates that the U.S needs to try a brand new strategy altogether and respect international law for once. Of course, if recent history is any indicator, this is just as far-fetched an idea as the notion that the Trump administration will ever bring peace to this war-torn nation.

Top Photo | Syrian children watch a U.S. armored convoy pass on a road in northeast Syria, July 26, 2017. (AP/Hussein Malla)

Darius Shahtahmasebi is a practicing attorney with an interest in human rights, international law, and journalism. He is a graduate of the University of Otago, where he obtained degrees in Law and Japanese. Follow him on Twitter at @TVsLeaking.

Anti-Media is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News
editorial policy.

The US government again shows its utter contempt for sovereign nations. The W Post shows the same contempt for skewing the facts and acting as cheerleaders for the losing side. The world would sure be a more peaceful place if the US along with their dark sidekick Israel stopped trying to take over the world. The empire will fall as the world forges ahead and tries to solve real issues such as planetary heating and poisoning and living in peace.

The few richest families that control America the EU and Canada and Austria wants world dominance. The open borders , One World order is now finely losing.
I think North and South Korea will join together and run America out and keep all the American missals and weapons , then join up with Russia and live in peace. Much like Turkey where America has many nukes and weapons… Then Ukraine will fallow suit…. No one wants to be on a sinking ship

The recent devastating car bombing in Mogadishu has been blamed by Somali officials on the terrorist group al-Shabab. But the violence (and famine) that have beset Somalia have deeper roots — decades of imperialism and intervention, and use of Somalia as a staging grounds for the “war on terror.”

Buried among statistics on gun profits and lobbying efforts is the terrifying reality of just how unique America’s gun obsession and associated violence are. And the equally terrifying plan by the NRA to “normalize” gun possession in nearly every nook and cranny of American life.

U.S. campaigns for regime change characteristically focus on the “madness” of the “dictators” to be toppled. In the case of North Korea, the narrative is spiced by the country’s developing nuclear capabilities — which North Korea views as its main line of defense against . . . regime change.

Aung Su Kyi, the leader of Myanmar, has been accused of “legitimizing genocide” against the country’s Rohingya Muslims, despite being a Nobel Prize laureate. Her country’s military has massacred thousands of Rohingya, leading some to call for Kyi’s Nobel Prize to be revoked.